Studies suggest that a great deal of childhood learning occurs in the very early stages, even preceding birth, and continues at an incredible rate throughout early childhood. As newborns, infants, toddlers, and small children experience and interact with the world around them, their brains attempt to organize and make sense of the sensory inputs by making and strengthening neural interconnections. Studies suggest that adult IQ is directly affected by the quantity, variety, and quality of that person's experiences and interactions as a child. The experiences and interactions of small children, and the resulting interconnections and pathways created in the child's growing brain, can be viewed as the building blocks for knowledge and intelligence. Therefore, it is critically important that small children have as many opportunities as possible to receive quality sensory inputs and to interact with the world around them in meaningful ways.
The development of language skills begins very early in childhood, possibly even before birth. The sounds heard by the child help to establish and strengthen the neural interconnections required for language. Therefore, it is desirable to expose children to sounds which make up language, correctly pronounced, so that the children may start making the neural interconnections necessary for language skills. Recent studies suggest that the development of language building blocks occurs much earlier than previously thought. Long before an infant is capable of speaking or otherwise auditorily interacting, the sounds that the infant hears help the brain to form proper interconnections and to reinforce those interconnections. Increasing the quantity and quality of these experiences increases the number of interconnections and the strength of those interconnections thereby "programming" the brain for future language use. By exposing the child to a wide variety of sounds, the child's IQ and language skills potentially increase. This is especially important where the child may have the opportunity to learn two or more languages.
Similar considerations apply to other areas of learning such as learning logical thinking and music. Studies suggest that early exposure to stimulating input helps to "program" a child's brain for learning musical skills or logical thinking.
The above considerations indicate that there is a need for devices or tools to help parents provide their growing children with stimulating input that provides the quantity, variety, and quality of sensory input necessary for healthy neural development. There are a wide variety of toys and other devices available which promote themselves as being good learning devices. However, few if any of these devices are specifically designed to provide the type of inputs necessary for optimal neural development.
As children grow and learn, their needs and abilities change. Therefore, there is a need for devices which provide passive input to a small infant as well as devices that provide interactive entertainment/education to an older child. Very small children and infants who are not yet capable of responding to instruction or even capable of manipulating an interactive device through buttons or other input means can benefit from passive learning devices that produce sounds and images designed to create and reinforce healthy neural pathways. As a child grows, and becomes capable of manipulating simple input devices such as touch sensitive buttons, the child can benefit from simple interactive learning devices. Such device could provide a variety of input devices such as colored buttons which when activated provide visual or auditory feedback. In this way, the child can come to associate certain sounds and images with other images or colors. This is an excellent way to provide a child with an understanding of the building blocks of language such as letters and letter combinations.
As the child continues to grow, and becomes capable of responding to instruction, yet more complex interactive learning devices become beneficial. For example, a device that requests the child to respond in a certain way and then rewards the child for a correct response helps the child to learn to associate certain sounds and images with other sounds and images. Once again, this can be useful in providing the tools necessary for language skills. In addition, this type of interactivity can help provide the neural interconnections which support logical and musical thinking.
Ideally, both passive and active learning modes can be incorporated into the same device so that a device with which a child is comfortable is not outgrown in a short period. Instead, the device should "grow" with the child by being capable of providing both passive and active learning modes.